‘Please … please don’t do that again,’ she managed to utter through the haze of the looming faint that threatened to plunge her into unconsciousness.
‘A shot of brandy, Dr Green. Here, please take it, it will put some fire back into your veins and give you a temporary boost of strength and calm. Drink, from my own hipflask.’
The General took a silver hipflask from his belt and offered it to her. Margaret did not usually drink hard liquor, but she realised she needed a good dose of it now, so she gladly accepted it from him and took a deep swig of the fiery liquid within. She swallowed it quickly, and as it burned its way down her throat into her stomach, a measure of strength began to return to her weak limbs.
‘Thank you sir,’ she said as she handed the hipflask back to the General with trembling hands.
‘My pleasure,’ he replied. ‘Are you fit to travel now?’
‘Travel? Where?’
‘Why, to the headquarters of the Antidote. You don’t think that this clearing in the bush is where we are permanently located, do you?’
‘I, I don’t know what’s going on, sir. But yes, I can move.’
‘Excellent. Now, what you’re about to see next might alarm you somewhat, so I want you to be prepared for that. Please, no matter what, remember that you have my word that you will be completely safe and under my protection at all times. Do you understand?’
‘I do, sir.’
‘Very well. Try not to panic, because this is something that you could not have imagined would be possible. Remember what I have just told you, though: you aresafe.’
‘Panic?’
‘You will, no matter what I say. But again, remember my words when you see what happens.’
‘All right, I’ll try,’ Margaret replied, her voice clouded with uncertainty.
‘You will ride with me. It might be a bit bumpy, but grip my neck just above my shoulders with your legs, and you should be fairly comfortable.’
‘Hold on to your what?! Your neck?!’
The General smiled mysteriously at her, and then turned to his troops and barked a command in their language. The twenty or thirty teenagers all laid down their AK-47s and submachine guns … and then began to strip off their uniforms until they were completely nude. The General too began to remove all of his clothes in front of her.
‘My apologies Doctor,’ he said, ‘but I’m sure as a medical professional you are comfortable with the human form in its natural state.’
‘What on earth is going on here?!’ Margaret gasped as she stared in bewilderment at the sea of naked bodies surrounding her.
Nobody answered her question. Instead, they started to change. Just as the General had said she would, she panicked. She screamed; a piercing howl of abject terror, for every single one of them began to transform from humans into wild animals before her very eyes. Skin rippled, muscles bulged, and limbs, torsos and heads distended, swelled and stretched with horrifying speed and intensity. Fur burst from skin, faces distorted, and fangs sprung from yawning, dislocated jaws and mouths. The General himself exploded, in a dark brown to grey, madly accelerated stop-motion animation, from a man into a towering elephant that blotted out the light of the moon and stars above her.
Still screaming, Margaret backed up against the tree, collapsing against its rough trunk as her jelly-weak legs gave out beneath her. She put her violently shaking hands over her head and continued to howl gutturally and wordlessly, but through the all-encompassing terror the General’s voice resounded in her mind.
‘Please calm down, Margaret. I know that this must seem like something out of a nightmare to you, but trust me, you are completely safe.’
She inexplicably felt his hands entering her mind as well, and it was almost as if his fingers were radiating a calming, gentle heat that quickly spread through her whole being. As this soothing balm travelled through her, her screams faded to whimpers, and she dropped her trembling hands from her face. Looking up, she saw that the mighty elephant was staring down at her, and inside his eyes she saw the General – his presence, his soul. She couldn’t understand how she knew he was there, but she did, without question. Behind him stood a menagerie of animals: leopards, lions, cheetahs, baboons, gorillas, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, mandrills, giraffes, chimpanzees, antelopes, African buffaloes, and other creatures, all standing in quiet order where the teenage troops had just been.
‘Now you see why I said you’ll need to hold onto my neck,’ the voice of the General said inside her head.
She looked up at the elephant and nodded; it was all she could do in this surreal, psychedelic nightmare from which there seemed to be no means of awakening. The beast’s great trunk reached down and curled around her body with gentle force, and he lifted her effortlessly up into the air. She found herself being placed on the elephant’s shoulders, and, sure enough, she found that she needed to grip his neck with her legs to remain stable.
‘Are you secure and comfortable up there?’ the General asked, his words echoing inside her head.
‘Yes, er, yes I am,’ she replied, feeling very strange about saying these words to an animal.
‘Hold on and try to get comfortable,’ he said, ‘for we have a long way to go.’
The elephant raised his trunk, trumpeted, and then started to move off into the jungle. All of the other animals trailed behind him in single file in calm, disciplined order. Margaret gazed up at the night sky, hosed from horizon to horizon with a rich, infinite gemstone glittering of stars, and a cool night breeze tickled her face as the huge creature ambled along beneath her. A tempest of swirling emotions raged inside her as the strange caravan disappeared into the humid blackness of the shadows, and after the last of them had left the clearing all
